Enterprise's Mission Now In Anger, Not Peace

When viewers last saw Chief Engineer Charles "Trip" Tucker III (Connor Trinneer) of the starship Enterprise, he was reeling from anger after his sister's death in a surprise alien attack on Earth.

Tonight, UPN's Enterprise and its crew find themselves in a very different universe, when the show returns for a third season.

In last season's finale, a mysterious race called the Xindi seriously damaged Earth. The aliens were furious because of an attack on them by humankind -- 400 years in the future. They came back in time to test a new weapon aimed at annihilating the planet in a pre-emptive strike. The space-based weapon cut a swath across the globe, including the Florida town where Trip's sister lived.

Trip then extracted a vow from Capt. Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) that no effort would be spared in finding those responsible for her death and the deaths of 7 million others.

Trinneer promises that this tragedy has not turned Trip into another person. "It's another layer to play, but I don't know if it's necessarily a change," he says. "It's just seeing how he deals with it. He's definitely angry about it. He's everything about it. He's sad, angry -- he's going to mourn her death. But making him one-dimensionally angry would be a mistake, and they're not doing that."

"It's an evolution. You turn corners, open new doors. What a gift to come and work with these folks and kick this stuff out every day. And to be given other levels to go with, maybe for the rest of the series -- it's a hoot."

This attack on Earth marks a first for television's Star Trek, which only put humanity's home world in danger in the feature-film franchise.

Also, the search for the Xindi is planned to play out over an unspecified number of episodes.

"Usually, we have a different thing happening per show," Trinneer says. "Now, it's going to happen for I don't know how many shows -- they don't call me."

Trinneer says it's a far cry from Enterprise's former "We come in peace" initiative. "We're not just out there saying, `Hi!'" he says. "If you're the people that we're looking for, we do mean some harm."

Speaking after filming about four episodes of the new season, Trinneer shares some hints about what's gone on so far. "We're still looking for the Xindi," he says. "We're encountering new alien races. The change that has happened is that we're consistently doing that, looking for the Xindi, and in that process, encountering new elements that we haven't seen before in the Delphic Expanse."

The region of space Trinneer is referring to is another new element in the show, a kind of Bermuda triangle in space where bizarre things occur and physical laws don't always apply.

"Some wacky things have happened that haven't happened before that I probably can't share," Trinneer says. "It's the big mystery."